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RESPONSE PAPER
RE-THINKING THE ROLE OF PRINCIPLES & PRACTICES
AND QUAKER PHILOSOPHY AT EARLHAM
CONTENTS
Content
Page number
1. INTRODUCTION 3
3. CONCLUSION15
REFERENCES17
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 HOOK
Embarrassed as I am, I must confess one thing: the day Safia announced that we
would learn about Principles and Practices and think of plans to improve their
effectiveness, I felt very bored! I saw no point in judging the impact of mundane rules
that I even didn't remember clearly and proposing ideas that would never be applied in
reality. However, the more I reflected, the more I realized the depth of the issue. Indeed,
the question about P&P touches many problems regarding the role of principles in any
communities generally.
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Peace and justice: acknowledging conflicts and violence as part of life but
dismissing them as reliable means of maintaining peaceful communities;
advocating toward non-violent resolution of conflicts in local and global
issues; practicing peace and justice in tackling with daily problems.
Secondly, P&P does not seem to play any vital role in distinguishing Earlham from other
colleges. In fact, Earlham people, whether with or without P&P still generally practice integrity,
respect for people, community, etc. They practice these values not due to the encouragement of
the P&P but rather, due to their own conscience and moral codes. Besides, some of the values
that Earlham consider characteristic of itself like integrity or community, other colleges also
practice. Thus, establishing the P&P not only perplexes current students but also baffles future
college applicants. In a nutshell, P&P fails in both its internal and external roles.
2.2. Identifying the semantic problem of principles in general and Earlhams P&P
a. The semantic problem of principles in general
The Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary defines principle as moral rule or a strong
belief that influences your actions and a law, a rule or a theory that something is based on.
Every individual and community, whether big like a country or small like a class, has a set of
principles. These principles were written by masterminds and have stood the test of time
throughout decades or even centuries. However, how representative these principles are is
another question.
One of the problems that almost all sets of principles face is the ambiguity of words:
because people interpret the same word in different ways, based on their background and
perspectives, there is no word that successfully depicts all the types of people in any community.
For example, I'm from Vietnam, but if you ask me what distinguishes Vietnamese people from
people of other nationalities, I won't be able to give you a list of characteristics that I firmly
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believe in. To answer the question about my race's identity, I have read many large-scale studies
of prestigious scholars that address the topic. However, the more I read, the more confounded I
feel. The more I know about international friends and their cultures, the more I doubt the
adjectives like "hard-working" and "hospitable", which the scholars employ to describe
Vietnamese people. Those words only are too vague to distinguish Vietnam from other countries,
and of course they can't describe all the people of my country. For example, consider the trait
"hard-working": there are thousands of "good-for-nothing" government officials whose only
meaningful deed they do in the whole day is to make a cup of tea for themselves, and at the same
time, there are tens of thousands of farmers and workers who never relax for a minute, whether
it's in freezing winter or scorching summer. Sometimes, I even can't believe that they all belong
to the same community.
The above-mentioned example of Vietnam convinces me to accept that we have to accept
that the semantic problem, which deals with the varied interpretations of the same word makes it
impossible for any word to accurately represent all types of people in one community.
everyone needed to have some sense of responsibility. Some, like Sara, even said that we should
develop a separate set of P&P for international students or at least add cultural understanding
to the list. I believe that if we have everyone on campus interviewed, the list will become
incredibly exhausting.
We acknowledge that different people have their own preferences and will suggest
different ideas based on their particular interests. And it's not to mention the fact that words, after
all, are just the representations of ideas. The more experiences I have, the more examples I can
think of to connect to the words. We have to come to terms with the fact that words, however
descriptive they are, mean different things to different people based on their backgrounds and
experiences. In short, with these overwhelming difficulties, I don't believe that any set of words
is descriptive enough to be representative of our school to the extent that we desire.
When thinking about these questions, I recall my embarrassing boredom when I heard
about the P&P topic in Seminar, remembering that I was not the only person to feel this way. Sad
as it is, it's human tendency to doubt anything traditional, considering them obstacles on the road
to innovations of tomorrow. One of my interviewee, a Senior who doesn't want to reveal his
name, criticized the value "simplicity" by posing a very interesting hypothesis: he states that peer
pressure and the variety of opportunities on campus are against the principle "simplicity";
practicing "simplicity" at Earlham requires limiting opportunities and discouraging ambitions in
students, which are unrealistic proposals, considering the future of college students themselves.
And thus, he concludes that traditional values have little, if any, application in the present. He
proposes that to best prepare for the constantly-changing future, we should abolish all fixed,
unreasonable principles to prevent any ties to the past. Awkward and blasphemous as this idea is,
it somehow makes sense to me. And I begin to wonder whether Earlham really needs P&P? Are
the purposes of principles exactly as we expect: to define our colleges identity among myriad
colleges in America and to adjust students and teachers behaviors on campus?
country to the city. At first he describes a world full of contradictions and yet glamor, where
"everything is absurd, but nothing is shocking, because everyone is accustomed to everything",
where "a multitude of new experiences offer themselves; but anyone who wants to enjoy them
must be more pliable than Alcibiades, ready to change his principles with his audience, to adjust
his spirit with every step." However, after a few months, Saint-Preux "begins to feel the
drunkenness that this agitated, tumultuous life plunges you into" He writes in the letter to his
girlfriend at home: "Of all the things that strike me, there is none that holds my heart, yet all of
them together disturb my feelings, so that I forget what I am and who I belong to." I stopped at
this line, suddenly realizing that I have mostly misunderstood the role of principles in general.
Indeed, principles are created not for the superficial purpose of distinguishing a person from
other people, an organization from other organizations, or a college from other colleges. Their
most fundamental role is to serve as something very sacred and deep-rooted that will remain
unchanged despite all changes outside to remind people of who they are and to where they
belong.
2.4. Acknowledging the Quaker philosophy at Earlham
a. The P&P preserves the Quaker philosophy
Much of the debate over P&P at the class was devoted to finding replacements for the
existing values. However, when I carefully consider the factors like the semantic problem and the
relevance of principles to the current times, the argument over the choice of words becomes
second in priority if not trivial. Indeed, what truly matters is not the words but the spirit behind
the words: the values "respect for people", "integrity", "peace and justice", "simplicity",
"community" together evoke the representation, not of Earlham people now, yesterday or
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tomorrow, but of a root that has been treasured since the establishment of our college: the
Quaker philosophy.
b. The Quaker philosophy at Earlham today
To better understand how this Quaker "root" impacts Earlham, I browsed through many
documents which draw the relation between Quakerism and our college. What impressed me the
most is the Earlham College Convocation on March 3, 1999:"With Relation to Time and
Eternity" by Professor Paul A. Lacey. (The convocation can be found online at the address:
http://legacy.earlham.edu/~laceypa/lacey_convo.html) With interesting examples of Quaker
teachers, she thoroughly addresses very crucial questions: "Is there a peculiarly Quaker form or
style of education?"; "How different is a Quaker college from other institutions" and how
Earlham serves to be "an illustration of the ethos a Quaker college might evidence".
What makes me surprised is that 16 years after the convocation was written, I still can
easily find in Earlham very typical examples of practices cited by Paul to prove the application
of Quaker spirit at Earlham. First, regarding the Quaker philosophy in the campus life, Paul
mentioned "egalitarian aspirations", "commitment to multiculturalism" and especially "ethic of
care": "faculty, student affairs staff and others such as clerical and maintenance personnel care
about students". These characteristics are still ubiquitous on campus: we students both have them
in our heart and consciously or unconsciously improve them when we come here. We still do
exactly what Paul observed in Earlham students 16 years ago: "As students sense this ethic of
care, they begin to care for one another."
Likewise, in academics, the Quaker philosophy also proves influential: they impact not
only the courses but also the topics discussed, the attitude of teachers to students and vice versa
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and the atmosphere of the class and our understanding of the discipline's purpose and meaning.
This semester, I took two classes in history and literature. Both give me enlightening
perspectives about the subjects. Indeed, the history class, "JPNS 472:History of Modern China",
doesn't repeat the traditional approach of remembering important events and influential people; it
analyzes themes such as rebellions and revolutions, gender relations through the various voices
of leaders, activists, intellectuals, workers, artists, etc. Likewise, in the literature class, "JPNS
140: Mapping East Asia", we compare and contrast the writings of authors with different
backgrounds and perspectives; realizing the differences and similarities in judging the same issue
helps us re-conceptualize our understanding of fundamental values like culture and self-identity.
The feature that both these classes share is the consideration of myriad voices; and this attitude
also lies in the heart of Quaker's philosophy of education, as mentioned by Paul: "To study
history not as a series of heroic wars and conquests, nor as the lives of great men, but as an
inquiry into why wars happen and how they are brought to an end" and "to read literature with
attention to a multiplicity of voices and a widened understanding of humans' conditions."
It's obvious that what remains unchanged at Earlham through history is this Quaker
philosophy. This philosophy influences both the campus life and the academics. The fact that this
spirit is preserved wonderfully at Earlham by a community whose majority are non-Quakers
proves the validity and contagiousness of the Quaker philosophy: people practice it not because
they must obey some common rules but because they are convinced by it.
2.5. Proposing measures to improve the effectiveness of Principles & Practices
a. Re-thinking the original question
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Though P&P fail to become popular and influential in Earlham, they succeed in
preserving the abstract Quaker philosophy in concrete words. And this Quaker philosophy itself
accomplishes the two expected responsibilities of the P&P: first, it serves as a guidance for
people and our community, connecting them in both spiritual and practical aspects; second, it
creates the unique identity of Earlham among myriad colleges in the USA.
As the P&P is just the means, not the final purpose, I propose that we should replace the
question: "What are the measures to improve the effectiveness of P&P?" with a more
fundamental one: "What are the measures to improve the effectiveness of the application of
Quaker philosophy at Earlham?"
b. Proposing necessary measures
Considering the aforementioned analysis, I believe that we should first concentrate on
helping Earlham better acknowledge the Quaker philosophy in P&P as well as in Earlham life.
However, in popularizing the philosophy, we shouldn't fall into the trap of imposing theoretical
doctrines of the Friends on the community. In fact, when my interviewees were asked about P&P,
none of them could remember all the principles; however, all mentioned the "Quaker spirit" as
something very ubiquitous and unique about Earlham. And though none of them clearly defined
the values of Quakerism, they all easily listed out the practices at Earlham influenced by it: the
peaceful surroundings, with the simple architecture, the woods and the green The Heart; the
practice of silence before meetings, the involvement of everyone in the decision-making process,
the way we address each other by first names, the ethics of care ubiquitous on campus and so on.
Many Earlham alumni told me that after four years, this spirit, intangible yet powerful as it is,
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absorbed into their beings. And even though they may forget the words of P&P, the spirit lingers,
becoming an indispensable part of their identities
Back to the original question about improving the effectiveness of P&P, I still believe that
the more urgent step, is not adjusting the available list of principles but taking pragmatic
initiatives to make the list less ambiguous and more accessible by including typical examples in
the explanations of the principles. For instance, one proof of the sense of community at Earlham
is that it doesnt have and also doesnt advocate Greek life; another proof of peace and justice
is that Earlham has many clubs and organizations that advocate for local and global causes.
When Earlhamites see their favorite activities reflected in the P&P, they will no longer consider
the P&P a distant list arranged by people at the top but something more familiar built up from
observations of students' activities. This requires the P&P to stay updated. The essential values
may stay unchanged, however the explanations must always be adjusted appropriately so that not
only the examples but also the language must create an immediate feeling of familiarity to any
Earlhamites.
When it comes to improving the impact of P&P, we should not ignore the importance of
popularizing the list. This does not only mean having the listed values appear repeatedly in
multiple occasions but also means making these values accessible to Earlham people. Ideally, the
explanations should be concrete and memorable and should create some connection among these
values, so they together form a "big picture", an intangible yet fundamental "spirit" of Earlham
that anyone can feel and incorporate into his/her being.
3. CONCLUSION
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Earlham. The discussion about P&P should not be restricted only to the available list of
principles. Of course, we should do everything within our power to improve the impact of P&P.
However, it is unreasonable to ask a list of words, however clear and accessible it is, to define
our school's identity and to guide our thoughts and actions. The impact of P&P depends partly on
the list and initiatives to popularize it and partly on each individual's efforts to understand it and
incorporate it into their life.
In other words, we may share with each other the belief and practice of the Quaker
philosophy. However, each of us will create our own principles and practices, based on the
original one. Our understanding of P&P, of Earlham and of ourselves in senior year should be
and have to be different from that in freshman year: still the same words, yet greatly enriched
and deepened by our exposure to various experiences.
REFERENCES
Earlham College. Principles and Practices
Paul A. Lacey. (1999). With relation to time and eternity
Marshall Berman (1982). All that is solid melts into air. The experience of modernity, 110-154.
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